scrubbedexpat091

For me, I am about as proficient as well as long as I only have to plug it in and follow on screen directions, I am good to go, anything else I am no good.

worklifebalance

Yes but somebody in your type of job would not likely leave it so those jobs are quite rarely available - and how do we identify it as a good one? Without repeating to much what I've already said I got a really good offer from a Canadian Insurance Co only for the offer to be rewritten by a US Insurance Co that acquired them. The hours of 37.5 originally offered were now minimum 80 as the guy in the US was being fired so the guy in Canada (me) could do both jobs. That woke me up to the fact that even if I got a good IT job it could change over night with an acquisition or new manager. Rather than have that threat over me I've moved out of IT. No job lasts forever so didn't want a repeat of what I've been through this last year so chosen a different angle - remote consultancy to UK and Chinese companies and homestay lets. Now I can work at home.

withabix

You forgot

'ing'

Juggernaut1064

OK i have no experience of the medical field but would you be able to work in one of the little labs that takes blood etc ? You have the skills but i don't know about qualifications or how much it pays.
They tend to be busy though so would that be a good option ???

bigshark

How about retrain and become a qualified swimming instructor and perhaps have your own swimming school?? This is something that has recently come into my mind. I have been trying to book some swimming lessons (ok, ok, please dont laugh, I admit it i cant swim!!) and finding a school / class where they can take on new students has been quite challenging as everywhere is booked up. One 'private' school emailed back saying that they are fully booked with 320 students (admittedly over 3 sites). A program can run for 10 weeks and usually consists of 2-3 lessons per week, and at $30 (minimum!!) / lesson / student, its a lot of dosh for teaching kids (and adults) to kick about in the water!

Tirytory

That had crossed my mind- I can cannulate and take blood (not that the first is needed) but I suspect childcare/pay ratio is going to fall down..Thank you for the suggestion though.

You can actually train as a lifeguard in our local pool. But as above I suspect it's a job when you're not worrying about childcare/hrs of work etc.

Its difficult when you're the main childcare for three...

Dorothy

I was an ophthalmic technician - a skill not recognised here - in Canada for 20 years before moving to Australia. Because I had always done medical typing at home, I was able to sign up with an employment agency and get temp jobs as a medical typist which turned into a great permanent job that I love as admin in a large teaching hospital. I have also been studying for the past 4 years part time toward a nursing degree. I'll be finishing in less than a year and will get into a grad program of my choice (geris or palliative).

Why not look at working as a medical typist either from home or in a doctor's office? Working from home does take discipline, but the benefit is that you don't have to commute.

Tirytory

Good idea... Will look into that..

scrubbedexpat091

9-11 operator? With your medical background it might get you into the door for it.

I don't know how 9-11 works in Ontario so not sure if your area has a dispatch center or not. Our area in BC for example doesn't have one, its outsourced to a company in Vancouver.

Princesstigger

urghhhh, I'm a qualified swimming instructor and taught for many years in the UK. I ran my own swim school for a while, as well as being a county level swimmer myself. The standard of swimming 'teaching' here is laughable. I would love to return to that industry, but would only do so on a private lesson basis. I would lose my mind otherwise!

I was in the water with my niece for her lesson a while back, biting my tongue as I wasn't the teacher, I was there for confidence for my niece. I had to take over when the 16/17yr old 'teacher' ten minutes into the half hour lesson said 'ummmmmmmm what to do now, what to do now.....ummmmmm'

Judging by what I have seen and experienced, there is no training involved in becoming a swim instructor here.... .can you swim? Ok, give it a go!

dbd33

One of my children worked as a swimming instructor in the school/university holidays. The money was really good, $27/hr iirc. She packed it in and went back to lifeguarding at $18 or so though as the instructing involved rich children who were concious and, even worse, rich parents who were concious.

At a tangent to that, I've worked in IT for Aetna, Tenet Healthcare, Royal Insurance, Manulife, Prudential and a bunch of other insurers I've forgotten. I've also worked for service bureaux supporting insurance companies such as CGI and EDS. I do not recognise the description of the IT workplace above at all.

caleo

My hubby works in IT and at his last job he was expected to work long hours for no extra pay - sometimes all weekend too. On call without pay for 1 week out of 6 - meaning 6-10 every evening and 10-10 sat/sun for no extra pay - always had to be available within an hour. When we worked out his hourly rate some weeks, he might as well have worked at Tims. All of these increased hours developed and increased as time went on - it was not like that when he first started. It was a U.S. Company - so maybe that had something to do with it? He now has a much better job, still in IT, but they at least treat the IT staff as human!!

As for changing career, I think it is very difficult after being a nurse for a long time. I looked at various options when I was struggling to get registered here - but by volunteering in the hospital, I realized that I hated not being "hands on". Even working as a PSW, I found it hard because I was restricted. I am now registered (RPN) but my role is much more advisory than hands on - and I really do miss that. I have the occasional hands on issue to deal with and I get a lot of satisfaction from that - and I know I would not be happy doing anything that would take me away from the "nursing" role.

worklifebalance

Page 6 of this thread http://britishexpats.com/forum/canni...-856733/page6/ shows my calculation to prove that a shelf stacker earns more per hour than most IT professionals. Later on in the thread I receive compensation of 10 months salary for being fired after refusing to work 108 hours per week. Whilst the employment regs didn't cover me the Ontario Human Rights did and the employer backed down rather than have a hearing.

dbd33

I don't understand why he wouldn't always be available within an hour; I think that's a reasonable expectation (though sometimes people find it frustrating not to be able to take holidays in places with poor internet and/or telephone connections) and would be disappointed not to be able to get hold of someone more quickly than that.

However, it's also a reasonable expectation to be paid for the hours actually worked. I think is an argument for being a contractor, if someone wants one of our people to work 70 hours then that's 70 times the person's hourly rate + HST. There's no question of any other arrangement. If one becomes an employee then that simplicity is traded for a package of "benefits" such as on-site daycares and cheap cafeterias that are designed to minimise the chance of the worker leaving the premises. Since employees are as disposable as contractors I can't see the case taking a position with elastic working hours, elastic at the employers choice, without additional compensation.

Again though, I don't see jobs like that in non-technical companies in IT in Canada, nor in the US. CA I know is like that, Google and Microsoft are rumoured to be but which insurance companies in Canada are sweatshops of that style?

dbd33

It doesn't prove that at all. You can't substantiate your numbers for hours or income for "most IT professionals".